Bongo Fury

Hi. Hoping that this isn't the death of my bongo. It doesn't start well. Been to the garage and our friendly mechanic thinks that it is the diesel pump or union. He has cleaned 'things' and then later when he checks there is fuel on the outside of the pump. He is not sure if the pump is leaking fuel and therefore letting in air (hence poor start) or if the union is leaking. I don't know what a union is, but am told that it is pipes. Is there anyway that he can find out for sure? If it is the pump, are we in trouble? I see that the parts are no longer available If I can get hold of a pump, will we need to change the cam belt too (that was suggested by our mechanic). How much is all this likely to cost Thanks. Finger's crossed for good news.

sunseeking wrote:Hi. Hoping that this isn't the death of my bongo. It doesn't start well. Been to the garage and our friendly mechanic thinks that it is the diesel pump or union. He has cleaned 'things' and then later when he checks there is fuel on the outside of the pump. He is not sure if the pump is leaking fuel and therefore letting in air (hence poor start) or if the union is leaking. I don't know what a union is, but am told that it is pipes. Is there anyway that he can find out for sure? If it is the pump, are we in trouble? I see that the parts are no longer available If I can get hold of a pump, will we need to change the cam belt too (that was suggested by our mechanic). How much is all this likely to cost Thanks. Finger's crossed for good news.

Is yours an earlier or a later model (diesel presumably)? Where are you based. Pump seals can be replaced, and at least one of them can be done without removing the pump, which keeps labour charges low. I'm pretty sure a reconditioned pump can be got if the pump is judged as beyond fixing, though costs are £400 or more I think (plus labour). But leaking diesel pumps are a fairly common problem on Bongos, and should not normally result in death of a Bongo. So, room for optimism I think. Cambelt does not need doing at the same time as far as I know, though if its age/mileage is uncertain you might want to have it done as a separate job (should be changed every 5yrs/60k miles) .

Union is the joint where a pipe is connected into the pump. The pump has several such connections. Many are under positive pressure and a leak on one of these would show while running. As already said, the seals commonly start to dribble in their old age! My bongo savvy garage could not say which seals were leaky until he got into the job.

I would expect a leak to be pretty bad to have a serious effect on starting but you may prove me wrong. If not, then there are some common very fixable causes of rough starting. Routine stuff and certainly not a reason to read Bongo its last rites just yet.

Thanks folks. I am talking with a few garages now so hopefully Bertie will be mended soon.